1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measurement endoscope system that measures the area of a missing portion of an object matter, or more particularly, the area of a missing portion of an edge of an object matter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, endoscopes having an elongated insertion unit thereof inserted into a body cavity for the purpose of observing an intracavitary organ or the like or of performing various kinds of cures or treatments using, if necessary, a treatment instrument lying through a treatment instrument channel have been widely adopted. In the field of industries, endoscopes for industrial use have been widely used to observe or inspect the interior of a boiler, a turbine, an engine, or a chemical plant to see if the interior is flawed or corroded.
The endoscopes for the above usage include an electronic endoscope (hereinafter, an endoscope) having an imaging device such as a CCD, which photoelectrically converts an optical image into an image signal, incorporated in the distal section of the insertion unit. In the endoscope, an image processing unit produces a video signal from the image signal representing a view image converged on the imaging device. The video signal is transmitted to a monitor, whereby an endoscopic image is displayed on the screen of the monitor for observation.
In particular, the endoscope for industrial use may be requested to measure an object part so as to assist in inspecting an object matter in details. In order to satisfy the request, various types of measuring means capable of measuring an object part using an endoscope have been proposed in the past.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-275934 describes a measurement endoscope system that enjoys the improved maneuverability for measurement and contributes to improvement of efficiency in inspection by performing a measurement process associated with an attached optical adapter.
In the measurement endoscope system, when an optical adapter is selected on the screen of a display device, a measurement process associated with the optical adapter is automatically selected. In order to perform measurement, a measurement execution switch located on the operation unit of an endoscope is pressed. Consequently, measurement is executed according to the measurement process associated with the optical adapter. The measurement endoscope system can measure the length of, for example, a crack occurring in an object matter or the area of a hole formed in a corroded portion of the surface of the object matter.
The area of the hole is measured as shown in FIG. 1. First, a plurality of points, for example, points A to G are designated on the outline of an image of the hole 101 displayed on the screen 100 of a display device. Segments shown by alternate long and short lines are successively drawn to link the respective adjoining ones of the points. Thereafter, a portion defined with the segments is closed at last, and the area of the defined portion is calculated.
To be more specific, the points A to G are successively designated, and a point H is designated so that a segment linking the point A and the point H will intersect the segment AB drawn first to close the defined portion. During the designation of the point H, a measurement program adopts a point closest to the point H (point A in the drawing) as a final point so as to close the defined portion. Thereafter, the closed graphic is replaced with a manifold of triangles (ΔABC, ΔACD, ΔADE, ΔAEF, and ΔAFG). The areas of the triangles are then calculated. Finally, the areas are summated in order to work out the area of the hole.